Run the Day

by Davis, Matthew C.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  Flesh-Thing had been the custodian of the Libro Nihil for decades; he was intimately familiar with it and its contents. Which meant, in theory, I was too. Kind of. Most of what had been shoved in my head was a gigantic, jumbled mess and a lot of it was already beginning to fade. But if I could hone in on those last moments before Flesh-Thing was attacked by Henry, I could use that.

  "I told the manager you're my autistic step-brother and we're on our way to Disneyland. I promised him you're harmless," Swift had walked up as I worked.

  "Why do you hate me?" I said after putting what I hoped would be the finishing touches on the circle. I was kneeling in the center of it, with my copy of the Bough in front of me; the circle with its accompanying scribbles sprawled out a few feet all around me.

  "Just hurry it up. The natives are growing restless."

  "You hurry it up."

  Unless I botched this, which could totally happen, it should work. I could worry about the whole confronting my great-grandfather when I got to it. Dwelling on it now would just make me get scared. More scared. People do very stupid things when they're scared.

  It was about as peaceful as I could hope for it to be, despite a few bewildered looks and whispered comments from passers-by, and the sounds of the freeway. The sun was dipping quickly towards the horizon, dragging the peculiar colors of the valley twilight and heralding the evening's chill. The wind was a soft, biting breeze that carried the aroma of cow shit along with the cold. I tried to empty myself of everything, pain, fear, anxiety, and absorb the world around me. I opened up that hidden part of myself that was one with the flow of Creation, fanning the energy inside me to life like stoking a flame. I focused on that energy, gathering it, collecting it, holding onto it.

  I figured I had gathered enough of the stuff once my temples began to throb, now I just needed something to tether it all to, to help give it shape. With my mind empty, I filled it with the memories of Flesh-Thing that still lingered, on the Libro Nihil. On every last little detail of it, the tattered black leather cover, the curious weight that belied its size, the lethal aura that emanated from it. With my eyes still closed, I reached forward and gathered my copy of the Bough in my hands and lifted it, slowly, opening my eyes and slipping my vision across the spectrum as I did.

  All around me the circle and formulas I had drawn rippled with light, a haze shimmered in the air with the colors of an oil slick inside, surrounding me, all the energy I had gathered. In my hands I held a pulsing, book-shaped object of light. So far so good, now it was just a matter of fixing the magic into the shape I wanted. I bore down on the image of the Libro Nihil in my mind, on the energy inside and around me, and I stood. It was like trying to stand with a semi-truck on my shoulders, the force pressing on me from all sides, and I was breathing heavy by the time I managed to stand straight. I stepped forward and broke the circle, releasing my hold on everything.

  Instead of shredding me apart, I felt the energy roar through me and fill my ears with static. It was over as abruptly as it began and left me gasping for air. All my old pains and worries came flooding back to fill the void the magic left while I worked to catch my breath, but it seemed my efforts had paid off. In my shaking hands, instead of my familiar Golden Bough was a little black book, no bigger than a pocket Bible, with my vision still shifted I could see angry black veins of energy throbbing across it.

  "I'll be damned, you did it. You really...Thomas, are you okay?" Swift came forward, shining in his true form, reaching out to steady me.

  "What?"

  I switched back across spectrums. There was something in my eyes, and my head was pounding with a pain that bordered on the profound. I clutched at the book with one arm, and wiped at my face with my other. The sleeve of my sweater came away wet and red with something that looked a lot like blood. My blood, I could feel it running down my face, blurring my vision.

  "For fuck's sake man, sit down." Swift herded me back towards the car and got the door open in time for me to collapse into the passenger seat.

  I caught a look at myself in the rearview mirror, and I laughed. It made my head hurt worse, but I laughed. One of my eyes was completely shot through with red, blood vessels burst, and a steady stream of bloody tears was streaking down my face. More of the red stuff was coming from my nose, and got into my mouth when I laughed. I coughed on it, gagged. It's entirely possibly I'd over extended myself and tried messing with more magic than I could reasonably handle, and I might've had some kind of aneurysm. That figured. I couldn't help but laugh at it.

  I heard Swift listing off expletives under his breath as he fired up the GTO and tore out of the parking lot of the gas station. I looked down at the book in my lap, still clutched tightly in my hands. I totally did it, I pulled it off. For all practical points and purposes, the book I held looked like a perfect replica of the Libro Nihil. Perfect enough to fool any of the ten to twelve senses; it even had the palpable aura around it of an object of power. It was just a giant ruse, it didn't have any of the power of the real thing, but it would work for my purposes.

  "We have to get to Grannok's farm," I said when I'd finally found my voice again.

  "One undead livestock related near-death experience wasn't enough?"

  "It's where Henry will be, it makes the most sense. The border between this side and the Other Side has already been weakened there."

  "And you're sure you can handle Henry?"

  "Not even a little bit. But there isn't a lot of choice, is there?"

  Swift grunted in the affirmative and took the next exit that would lead us to Grannok's farm. The sun was officially down, and if I were the death obsessed servant of a colossal cosmic entity that was in the market for some doomsday, I'd be gearing up to get my evil on. Henry had probably already started laying the groundwork for the ritual, and who knew what he had done to Sarah. If she was awakening to her powers, and in the clutches of my great-grandfather, she was probably scared out of her mind. I didn't care to think about what he would do to get her to complete the ritual.

  Scenery became a blur as Swift sped down the road, his foot heavy on the throttle. It all melted together, the dull throbbing in my head, the throaty growl of the car's engine. For the first time the entire day, my brain wasn't spinning a million miles an hour with a barrage of thoughts and anxieties. Mostly it was due to a world of pain and a fatigue so deep it had settled into my bones. I was on empty, sucking fumes. Hopefully I could hold it together long enough to at least make a show of trying to stop Henry. Instead of focusing on anything useful, I spent the majority of the trip thinking of all the creative ways my great-grandfather would annihilate me.

  I believe it's better to be prepared for those things in the event they should happen, it lessens the trauma.

  "We're close, you ready?" Swift knocked me out of my reverie, probably for the best, as he swung the car onto the familiar dirt path that led to Grannok's farm.

  "Sure," I tried sitting up straight, squaring my shoulders, "you can let me out here."

  Swift hit the brake more suddenly than I would've preferred, I caught myself before I could smack my face into the dashboard. My false Libro Nihil went spilling onto the floorboards and I scrambled to pick it up then shot a glare at Swift.

  "What the fuck was that?"

  "Drop you off? I know you're probably brain damaged, but are you stupid too? Henry will tear you apart if you go in by yourself." Swift sounded outraged, I think it was the closest I'd ever seen him to yelling.

  "I have to go in alone," I was tired, I couldn't bring myself to raise my voice anymore, "so that I can get Henry's attention, so you can rain holy hell on his head from behind."

  "You should've said so."

  "I just did. Give me a break all right? It's been a rough day."

  I pulled the pistol out of my bag and tucked it into the waist of my jeans; it hadn't proven quite as effective as I'd hoped, but I'll be damned if it didn't make me feel a little
bit better. I clutched my imitation Libro Nihil to my chest as I got out of the car, groaning when my back went through a series of eye-rattling pops. Swift killed the engine and the lights as I made my way down the path.

  "Don't get yourself killed before I get there," Swift called out.

  No promises.

  I could already see the shadow of the old shattered gate coming up ahead, creeping out of the darkness under the trees. It had gotten so cold it was making my nose runny, and the fog was starting to creep in around the edges of everything. If I didn't know better I'd think the whole horror movie atmosphere was being done for my benefit, but it was just another late autumn evening in Hanford. I passed through the posts of the gates and it was like walking through an invisible wall of...sludge.

  Everything behind me faded away, I felt surrounded by a thick, cloying pressure. It was moist, humid and warm in defiance of the evening's chill. I caught a faint whiff of something rotten, and all the sounds of the freeway had faded away and been replaced by the sound of a distant wind howling through a tunnel. I could feel forces at work, raising my hair up like static electricity; there was power at play here, lots of power. Ahead of me, I could see lights, tiny flickering jewels of light like stars hovering in the darkness. Henry had already begun the ritual to summon forth the Sleeper. As I walked closer, I began to hear a multitude of chattering whispers, a chorus of unnerving gibberish at the edge of my hearing. I stuck to the shadows, wanting to get as close as I could, see as much as I could.

  The ruins of the farm materialized before me, along with a crowd of figures. My great-grandfather had apparently been very busy.

  Kneeling in a circle around the foundations of the barn were six women, an assortment of ages, sizes, colors. They were all stripped naked, and had their hands bound behind their backs with distant, glassy looks in their eyes, and they were all swaying gently like grass in a breeze. Above their heads were the lights I had seen as I approached, tiny balls of flickering blue and white flame. At the center of it all stood Sarah, still dressed in her floral scrubs, with her eyes closed and arms raised up as if she were reaching for the sky above her. Her mouth was moving, issuing forth the torrent of whispers I had heard. I hugged the tree line, inching closer, and between the ring of bound women I could see the true Libro Nihil lying at Sarah's feet with its pages fluttering in the alien wind that filled the clearing. But there was no sign of my great-grandfather, Henry.

  Where the hell was he?

  I was going to regret it, I knew it, but I took in a deep breath to steady myself and let my vision slide to the Other spectrum. And, of course, I regretted it. Floating in the air over the women was a thing. A great, giant, black, pulsing thing, like a cloud of ink that extended tendrils of blackness out to wrap around the heads and necks of the women, and at its center was the face of my great-grandfather. His mouth was split into a rictus of a grin, swirling black holes where his eyes should be, but as sure as I could feel the wind on my skin I could feel his gaze boring directly into me. I almost dropped my false Libro when he spoke, his voice a soul-wrenching knife I felt inside of me as much as heard.

  "Now we can begin."

  Chapter Eighteen

  Moment of truth time.

  How sad would it be if I'd had the worst day in my brief, questionable existence just to have the whole world end here? It would kind of make everything leading up to this moment incredibly pointless. No reason to wax existential about it, or to drag it out. The end of the world, that's what it finally takes to make me find what little courage I have.

  And to make it worse, I was doing it for free.

  "Have you come to prostrate yourself before me? To join me in my glory?" Henry's voice rose out of the black cloud, roaring like a hurricane.

  I grit my teeth and stepped out of the trees and into the clearing. I hoped Swift was already somewhere nearby.

  "As a matter of fact, I am. And as a gesture of good faith, I've brought you a gift." I held up my false Libro Nihil.

  While Sarah continued her chanting, eyes locked shut in whatever kind of mindfuck Henry had her in, and the women continued their swaying, the face of my great-grandfather creased in an ugly frown. A ripple went through the magic fluctuating in the air.

  "Impossible."

  I shrugged, taking a few more steps forward and glancing furtively about as I did. The wispy tentacles of blackness that were latched onto the women pulsed with ugly, dirty energy. I risked giving the lights floating over their heads a closer look and my heart skipped a beat.

  Souls. Their fragile, living souls.

  "Impossible that you could have been duped?" It came out shakier than I would have hoped. "He wasn't dead when I found him you know, Flesh-Thing. Or should I say Knows-Secrets? He told me it was you who came for him, and he showed me the true Libro Nihil. He begged me to stop you with his last breath. Look at it Henry, feel it, you know it's true."

  I stopped just outside of the circle still holding up the book for him to see. The cloud around his face pulsed, throbbed, and he bared his teeth in a carnivorous grin.

  "So the blood of the Spear is not wasted, you're no simpering weakling after all are you?" Henry's voice washed over me with a graveyard stink. "You would damn humanity?"

  "I decided it's better than the alternative." I somehow managed to match my gaze with the black holes where Henry's eyes were supposed to be.

  And then he laughed.

  In the center of the circle the tendril wrapped around Sarah's neck disappeared in a puff and she hit the ground like a ragdoll, crumpling into a heap.

  "Then come take your place. Complete the ritual, bring forth Vorkyzzx and usher in a new age. The sacrifices are ready," Henry said. "I must thank you for delivering the last one to me."

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  The black cloud stirred, from it a figure emerged and settled onto the ground. Hack, it was Hack. With my sight shifted, I could see that the aura that usually hung around him like a thundercloud now guttered like a dying candle. A tendril of smoky darkness extended from the cloud to wrap around his throat, like with the other sacrifices. His eyes were closed, arms limp at his sides. I wanted to say something, cry out in shock or elation, but I couldn't. He just stood there, in the center of the circle next to where Sarah lay. It jarred me to see him, but I understood why Henry would have wanted him alive. Sacrificing Hack and releasing the energy contained within him would supercharge the ritual of the Libro Nihil and rip wide open the door between worlds.

  I made my way past the other sacrifices, trying not to look at their faces. If I messed up, I didn't need anything else weighing on my conscience. I kept my eyes away from Sarah, and the way she lay in the center of the circle without moving; instead, my eyes were riveted to the spot where the true Libro Nihil sat with its pages fluttering. I only needed a second to make a grab for it, to disrupt the groundwork that Henry had already begun. I'd also be conveniently placed at ground zero for when he realized what was happening, and would more than likely be the first victim of his wrath when he realized I tricked him.

  There was no easy way to do this. Hopefully, Swift was already nearby and watching, waiting for an opening.

  I held my false book out in front of me, lying flat and open across both my palms. I could feel Henry's attention on me, watching everything I did, cracking and pulsing. I gathered energy about myself, like I was beginning the stages of working a complex ritual. The air around me inside the circle shimmered, a rippling scar in reality from where Grannok had attempted the ritual almost a century ago.

  And then I dropped the book.

  "Fool! What is this?" Henry boomed.

  Hack and the other sacrifices stirred, the tentacles of darkness around their throats tightened. I ground my teeth and made my move, swept up the true Libro Nihil and pulled the pistol from the waist of my jeans, raising it over my head, aiming for dead center of the cloud, where Henry's face hovered.

  "Swift!" I shouted and pulled the t
rigger, the barrel belching forth a torrent of fire.

  The world exploded into a calamity of warring darkness and light, everything happened all at once. I couldn't process it all, but I did have the stupendous luck of standing smack dab in the middle of all the festivities. It started with my great-grandfather screaming, a noise like the earth was tearing itself apart, followed by a roughly humanoid shaped streak of white light slamming into the cloud. I was blown clear of the ritual circle by the tremendous force of the collision, and thankfully had enough presence of mind to clutch onto the Libro Nihil for dear life when I went sailing through the air.

  And then promptly blacked out.

  Consciousness came back piece by piece. It started with hearing, something like the sound of the ocean roaring in my ears and someone yelling my name over and over. My body came next, a sudden awareness of all the pains I had collected during the day flaring up all together, and something shaking me about. Vision, my eyes opened grudgingly, everything in black and white and a hazy shape in front of me, the outline of a person.

  "Tommy, god damn it you get knocked out a lot!"

  The figure in front of me resolved itself slowly into Hack. Color started seeping in, and I saw Hack's eyes were a very ordinary, human shade of limpid brown. I think my mouth was working, trying to say something, but it wasn't happening. There were hideous noises; stone shattering, tortured metal screaming, the wind howling furiously. Hack started yanking me to my feet and I noticed I was still holding the Libro Nihil, holding it wrapped tightly in both arms.

  "Now ain't the time for spacing out," Hack shouted right next to my ear. "Your buddy Swift's working on getting himself killed."

  What?

  My head swiveled uncertainly in the direction of the riotous noise, and with my vision still tuned to the Other Side it was a full-blown sensory assault. There was a being of pure white light, wings burning like the sun, Swift. And then there was the monstrosity that was Henry, the seething black nightmare with his twisted grimace inside of its inky mass, so dark it was like looking into the Void. They crashed and slammed into each other, light and the absence of it smashing together and whirling. My brain screamed at me to stop looking.